The Lüftlmalerei of Garmisch-Partenkirchen
A guided tour of the vibrant, un-curated, open-air, art gallery that is the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany
The Lüftlmalerei of MITTENWALD
A guided tour of the vibrant, un-curated, open-air, art gallery that is the market town of Mittenwald in Bavaria, Germany
The Lüftlmalerei of OBERAMMERGAU
A guided tour of the vibrant, un-curated, open-air, art gallery that is the municipality of Oberammergau in Bavaria, Germany
“Art will always be art.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Everywhere you look in this beautiful Bavarian district, the walls of the buildings are covered in art.
Nothing seems to have changed since 1908, when Franz Joseph Bronner wrote in Von Deutscher Sitt’ und Art:
What summer visitor or tourist would not have enjoyed the old, gracefully painted farmhouses, of which there are still a considerable number in our high mountains! Some of our mountain resorts, such as the famous Oberammergau[...], the magnificently situated Mittenwald [...] are like huge picture books. I think I can boldly claim that no other area of Germany has as many frescoed farmhouses as our Bavarian alpine landscape between the rivers Lech and Inn. If one of the foreigners were to satisfy his thirst for knowledge and inquire about the creators of these paintings, he would most likely not receive half a dozen correct answers per hundred questions. Most of the locals know little or nothing about the matter, and looking up chronicles or guides does not make you feel much better. Admittedly, this painting is an art that stands in the street, and in some respects resembles folk song; one delights in these creations--without much asking who conceived them, who made them, or who brought them first.1
While you may immediately see these paintings, and may even recognize some of the images, what you may not see is how each of these magnificent murals is some 2,000 years in the making. Not to say that they’re 2,000 years old. (Even though some of them were, in fact, painted centuries ago.) Rather, they are the culmination and coalescence of 2,000 years of competing politics, pilgrimage, and patronage.
As Jude Welton wrote in Eyewitness Art: Looking at Paintings:
We often look at paintings out of their original context. But to fully appreciate the particular character of a work of art, we need to consider its original function and setting, and think how those affected its form and content. Most paintings were not made to be hung beside others in a gallery; they were commissioned or sold for a set purpose. That purpose might have been anything from aiding private religious devotions to decorating the ceiling of an aristocrat’s palace. The imagery, style, size, and viewpoint of a painting depend largely on why it was painted, for whom it was painted, and where it was intended to be seen.2
Here, the murals are creations of a multitude of masters, meanings, and the varied history of the building they’re painted on.
Hidden in each of these works, however, their history is written, if only you knew how to read these so-called “Lüftlmalerei.” Like a picture book, a walk through the streets here tells the story of each town, its people, and its place in Europe for the last few millennia.
And that’s what I hope to show you with this website — this encyclopedia of lüftlmalerei in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen region of Bavaria, Germany — what these murals mean for the people looking at them, for the people who created them, and what they mean for history.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ART FORM
What it is, where it came from, and why you'll find it here
Please note that the content of this website was originally written in English. Because this site uses an online translator, depending on where you are in the world, the text may be translated. And, depending on the text, it may be translated incorrectly.
- Bronner, Franz Joseph. Von Deutscher Sitt' und Art. Munich: Verlag Max Kellerer, 1908, p. 305: "Welcher Sommerfrischler oder Tourist hätte nicht schon seine helle freude an den alten, anmutig bemalten Bauernhäusern gehabt, deren unser Hochgebirge noch eine ganz erkleckliche Anzahl aufweist! Manche unserer Gebirgsorte, wie z.B. das berühmte Oberammergau (mit ungefähr einem Dußend bemalter Häuser), das prächtig gelegene Mittenwald (mit 32 freskengeschmücktehn Häusern) gleichen geradezu riesigen Bilderbüchern. Ich glaube kühn behaupten zu dürfen, daz kein Gebiet Deutscchlands so viele freskengeschmückte Bauernhäuser besitzt wie unsere bayerische Alpenlandschaft zwischen Lech und Inn. Wenn nun einer der fremden seiner Wissensgier Befreidigung verschaffen wollte und sich nach den Schöpfern dieser Gemälde erkundigen würde, so würde er auf hundert fragen aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach kaum ein halb dutzendmal einen richtigen Bescheid erhalten. Die meisten Einheimischen wissen wenig oder so viel wie nichts in der Sache und bei einem Nachschlagen in Chroniken oder führern ergeht es einem nicht viel besser. Freilich, diese Malerei ist ja eine Kunst, die an der Straße steht und die in mancher Beziehung Ähnlichkeit mit dem Volksliede hat; man ergötzt sich an diesen Schöpfungen -- ohne viel zu fragen, wer sie erdacht, wer sie gemacht oder wer sie zuerst gebracht."
- Welton, Jude. Eyewitness Art: Looking at Paintings; The essential visual guide to understanding paintings and their composition. Dorling Kindersley, 1994.